Rev. Roland J. Wells, Jr. - Pastor

Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost - August 25, 2002

Lessons: Romans 12:1-8; Matthew 16:13-20

"One Spirit, One Body"

Introduction:

This letter to the Romans we've been reading all summer is the jewel of the New Testament; it's the most precious explanation of Gospel; it's the crown jewel of Paul's letters; it's the hardest, the deepest and the most important for keeping the message of the Gospel alive in the Church.

Luther re-discovered the truth of this book, and it changed the history of the church. Today's text, Romans 12:1-8, is the transition to the second part of Paul's Letter. The first part was all doctrine. The second section tells us how to live these teachings out.

Most of Paul's letters end in sections like this. Sometimes it seems like Paul's thoughts at the end of these sections are somewhat random. Actually, each of these ideas are meant to be chewed on for a little bit. Let's walk our way through the text today and see what we find. Key ideas will be 'body' and 'Spirit.'

I) The Text:

12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. This is a familiar verse; so familiar that several things surprised me as I studied it.

Brothers- to the believers; in view of God's mercy- what word here? No- it's not the word we translate as Hebrew 'chesed'- it's not the covenant love word of Matthew (Gk=eleos) it's a rarer word, meaning 'pity'- so here, it means, 'because of God's great pity and love towards you... do what?

Present your bodies -literally, "you folks, each present your own body." Both words are plural- 'you guys, you present your bodies.' As a living sacrifice - just like in the OT there were sacrifices- now God wants a living sacrifice, not a dead one; he wants you each to present your body- What does that mean? To present you, all you are, your human appetites, your selves, but particularly your bodies, whose appetites can get you into trouble.

Paul is not "anti-body." He always speaks about the body as being a good thing. Some then taught that all bodies, all things physical, were bad and only the spiritual was good. Paul doesn't teach that; but he does say here that presenting our bodies to God was an important part of being a disciple. He says we present our bodies, and he says this is... holy and pleasing to God. When we present ourselves, God calls us holy, and he always finds us acceptable. Sometimes it's hard to present our addictions, our drives, our habits and our whole selves to God. This passage is a Gospel promise- God will empower you to present yourself.

Now comes an odd part- this is your spiritual act of worship. The NIV says 'spiritual act of worship' others say |:'spiritual worship' but others say 'reasonable service.':| .

Which is it? The first word can be translated 'logical' or 'sensible' or 'according to the Word' thus 'spiritual'. The second means 'service' or 'worship'- it can mean work, or work towards God, which is why we call this a worship 'service'- we are doing the 'service' of worshiping God. So what does it mean? Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, which God will accept as holy and pleasing to him; and this is the sensible, Scriptural way of serving him."

[2] Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. Literally- "Don't get squished into the mold of this present age, but like a butterfly is transformed- 'metamophasized.' -and this happens primarily in your mind. That's battleground, isn't it? We need a new mind. As God does his good work, what happens? We can look at our surroundings and "test, examine, interpret, discern, approve, prove, demonstrate"- we can look at life and discover what God's will is. He doesn't want us to be walking into the dark, bumping into hurtful stuff; God gives us the power to know and to approve- to do what God's will is. We can want to do God's will. His good, pleasing and perfect will- that's an echo of the verse above- when we yield to him, it is holy and pleasing; then, all of this empowered by him, we can learn more about his will and do his good, pleasing and perfect will. It's not law, it's not rules; it's promise; it's grace; it's pure Gospel.

II) The Body

Now we come to verse three: [3] For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. That's good transition. We're called to humility; not to put ourselves down, and measure ourselves only regarding our own level of faith and how we think that should be. Are we trusting?

Our Old Self loves to measure ourselves against other people; we love to brag about gifts, or how hard we serve, or how much better we keep rules than the other person- Paul says here none of that counts anything. It's wrong. All that counts is to ask yourself, 'Am I trusting in Jesus?' Or am I trusting my wealth, my insurance, my smarts, myself? If we are trusting in anything greater than Jesus for our present or our future, it's building on sand.

That section was a tiny teaching on ego and self-reliance. Paul goes on to say we need more than ourselves. We need each other. Now we get on with more talk about bodies:

III) 'Body Ministry'

[4] Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, [5] so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

Paul here is bringing up the same teaching as in 1Corinthians 12- just like the human body has many parts, so the Church, the 'Body of Christ' is made up of many parts- people who are different from each other- each have different function- they have different abilities, gifts and roles in the Church- all are important and mutually interdependent.

A few years ago when I had my hips replaced, I was amazed that after they replaced some of my parts- my legs didn't work the same. I had to re-learn how to walk. Even today I find that when I walk on uneven terrain, I'm still sometimes surprised by the difference between where I think my feet are and where they're actually at. A couple springs ago I was riding a bike, stopped, put my foot down where I always put it, and continued to tip right over and crack a couple ribs. My foot wasn't where I thought it was.

All the parts have to work together. When they don't do what they're supposed to do- you fall off a bike and crack ribs. When the parts of the body don't all work together, the Church, the Body of Christ, gets weak.

The same is true if we don't exercise all the parts. What happens when you do a bunch of yard work after months of winter inactivity? We find we have muscles we didn't know we had. Sore ones. The church is weak as well when all the gifts and all the abilities of all the members aren't exercised.

And if some get overused, they break down. My son Tim learned that about the human body. He built up his throwing muscles, but he over-developed the front- and when he threw and threw, he pulled the little muscle in his back that stopped his arm at the end of the throw. He didn't exercise that one, and it got overused. The body hurts when everybody doesn't get their share of the exercise.

On the other had, the unused muscles get weak and finally go away. Paul gives examples: [6] We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. [7] If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; [8] if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

Summary:

What a bunch of Good News in this text- God wants us! He wants us to present our whole selves to him. As we live in that worship, we grow in our ability to understand and do God's will. He builds our character so that we learn to see ourselves as he sees us. And more than that, he wills to build us together into a Body- headed, directed, guided, used by Jesus Christ himself.

Our Romans lesson today is the transition to the last part of Paul's letter. In this part, he begins his "hortatory" section- exhortations to the Christians on how to live out the freedom of the Gospel. He begins by talking about us presenting our bodies, and ends by talking about each of us being part of the body of Christ. Today we'll have some folks out at the Wilderness; but even though we are split into two groups, our theme: "One Spirit, One Body."

Pentecost 14 - August 25, 2002

Romans 12:1-8

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. [2] Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.

[3] For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. [4] Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, [5] so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. [6] We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. [7] If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; [8] if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

Romans 12:1 Parakalw/ ou=n u`ma/j( avdelfoi,( dia. tw/n oivktirmw/n tou/ qeou/ parasth/sai ta. sw,mata u`mw/n qusi,an zw/san a`gi,an euva,reston tw/| qew/|( th.n logikh.n latrei,an u`mw/n\

2 kai. mh. suschmati,zesqe tw/| aivw/ni tou,tw|( avlla. metamorfou/sqe th/| avnakainw,sei tou/ noo,j eivj to. dokima,zein u`ma/j ti, to. qe,lhma tou/ qeou/( to. avgaqo.n kai. euva,reston kai. te,leionÅ

3 Le,gw ga.r dia. th/j ca,ritoj th/j doqei,shj moi panti. tw/| o;nti evn u`mi/n mh. u`perfronei/n parV o] dei/ fronei/n avlla. fronei/n eivj to. swfronei/n( e`ka,stw| w`j o` qeo.j evme,risen me,tron pi,stewjÅ

4 kaqa,per ga.r evn e`ni. sw,mati polla. me,lh e;comen( ta. de. me,lh pa,nta ouv th.n auvth.n e;cei pra/xin(

5 ou[twj oi` polloi. e]n sw/ma, evsmen evn Cristw/|( to. de. kaqV ei-j avllh,lwn me,lhÅ

6 e;contej de. cari,smata kata. th.n ca,rin th.n doqei/san h`mi/n dia,fora( ei;te profhtei,an kata. th.n avnalogi,an th/j pi,stewj(

7 ei;te diakoni,an evn th/| diakoni,a|( ei;te o` dida,skwn evn th/| didaskali,a|(

8 ei;te o` parakalw/n evn th/| paraklh,sei\ o` metadidou.j evn a`plo,thti( o` proi?sta,menoj evn spoudh/|( o` evlew/n evn i`laro,thtiÅ

Matthew 16:13-20

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"

[14] They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

[15] "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

[16] Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

[17] Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. [18] And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. [19] I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." [20] Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.